Blackstone hires Morgan Stanley executive for China: sources

By IBT Staff Reporter On 02/24/12 AT 10:08 AM

Blackstone Group has hired Ed Huang from Morgan Stanley's Asia private equity unit as a managing director for China, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as the private equity giant builds up its teams in Asia.

Huang will cover Greater China and began work this week with Blackstone, the sources said. He joins Yi Luo, another dealmaker and senior managing director, who joined Blackstone last year from rival private equity firm Carlyle Group .

Blackstone has been rapidly building a team under Asia-Pacific head Michael Chae, a former top dealmaker for the firm in New York who moved to the region in late 2010.

Chae told Reuters last year that the firm sees China and Southeast Asia as top destinations for Asia investments this year.

We are long-term very bullish about China, Chae told the 2012 Reuters Investment Outlook Summit in Hong Kong.

Huang began his career in investment banking with Merrill Lynch in New York before joining Morgan Stanley Asia in 2003.

He was heavily involved in one of Morgan Stanley's most successful private equity deals in Asia, the privatization of Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd <0460.HK>, one of the sources said. That deal is regularly cited as an example of returns that can be made by identifying the right targets to delist.

Morgan Stanley's private equity unit took Sihuan private in Singapore in 2009, identifying a company that required no additional work before relisting in Hong Kong in October 2010. The stock jumped 28 percent on its IPO, with top-end pricing valuing the company at 26.7 times 2011 earnings.

Blackstone and Morgan Stanley declined comment. The sources were not authorized to talk to the media.

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